Yep, he's smiling, but notice that the only passing interest he's getting is from the baby - the rest of the gals are "butts to you" and "talk to my agent" - the one who is not interested enough to even stand up :-)

Great (and amusing) shot, Lin! If I didn't know better I would tend to also think the guy had a grin on his lips. :roll:

Did you observe him (and the cows) long enough to really establish if the cows were all really part of his harem? It's tough for me to comprehend that one bull, even in his prime, could successfully defend so many cows against the advances of the other harem-less bulls.

Great (and amusing) shot, Lin! If I didn't know better I would tend to also think the guy had a grin on his lips. :roll:

Did you observe him (and the cows) long enough to really establish if the cows were all really part of his harem? It's tough for me to comprehend that one bull, even in his prime, could successfully defend so many cows against the advances of the other harem-less bulls.

I watched him for about an hour during which time he managed to run off three of his competition. Actually, many of these females
are too young to breed this season being just yearlings. The actual breeding population in this herd was around five
adult cows and I'm not sure how many of them were really still in estrous. I suspect this was more of a "practice" session for
this young bull who will probably get "lucky" next season when he is larger and stronger. The real breeding herds have
already been established and usually consist of around eight cows and a bull. The groups sometimes have youngsters which
the bulls seem to defend as if they were viable mates even though they are a year from being viable mates.